page_title: Kevin Shields
section_title: 1997–2006: Collaborations and Lost in Translation
hierarchical_section_title: Kevin Shields / Music career / 1997–2006: Collaborations and Lost in Translation
caption_attribution_description: Kevin Shields performing as a guest with The Charlatans at Union Chapel in London, England on 16 March 2011.
context_page_description: Kevin Patrick Shields is an American-Irish musician, singer-songwriter, composer, and producer, best known as the vocalist and guitarist of the band My Bloody Valentine. My Bloody Valentine would become extremely influential on the evolution of alternative rock with their two studio albums Isn't Anything and Loveless, both of which pioneered a subgenre known as shoegaze. Shields's texturised guitar sound and his experimentation with his guitars' tremolo systems resulted in the creation of the "glide guitar" technique, which became a recognisable aspect of My Bloody Valentine's sound, along with his meticulous production techniques.
  Following My Bloody Valentine's dissolution in the late 1990s, Shields became a frequent guest musician, producer, engineer, and remixer with various bands and artists, including Experimental Audio Research, Yo La Tengo, Dinosaur Jr, and Mogwai. In 1998 he became a touring member of Primal Scream. Shields contributed several original compositions to the soundtrack of Sofia Coppola's 2003 film Lost in Translation, which earned him nominations for British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Irish Film and Television Academy awards.
context_section_description: Following My Bloody Valentine's disbandment, Shields embarked on a number of collaborations with other artists, both as a guest musician and producing, engineering, mixing and Remixing other acts. Shields contributed guitar loops to two Experimental Audio Research albums: 1996's Beyond the Pale (which was recorded at Shields' home studio in Streatham and credits him with "special thanks" on the album sleeve) and 1997's The Köner Experiment. He was a frequent collaborator with indie rock band Dinosaur Jr, appearing on and producing Hand It Over (1997) and Ear-Bleeding Country: The Best of Dinosaur Jr. (2001), as well as frontman J Mascis' More Light (2000) and The John Peel Sessions (2003). Shields has lent his services as a guest musician to releases by Russell Mills & Undark, DJ Spooky, Curve, Manic Street Preachers, Le Volume Courbe, Gemma Hayes and Paul Weller. In a live capacity, Shields has performed with the Canadian contemporary dance company La La La Human Steps (contributing the song "2" to the 1995 performance of the same name), Gemma Hayes, The Charlatans and Spacemen 3 (appearing at their 2010 reunion show).
  Shields has also remained active as a producer outside of My Bloody Valentine: his first credits were The Impossible's 1991 single "How Do You Do It?"; and "Tunnel", a track from GOD's remix album Appeal to Human Greed (1995). He also produced Dot Allison's Afterglow (1997), Joy Zipper's American Whip (2003) and The Beat Up's Blackrays Defence (2005). Shields has also mixed and remixed material by The Pastels, Yo La Tengo, Damian O'Neill, Mogwai, Hurricane #1, The Go! Team, Bow Wow Wow and Wounded Knees.
  Between 1998 and 2006 Shields became a frequent collaborator and semi-permanent touring member of Primal Scream. He contributed guitar, produced and mixed tracks on two of the band's studio albums: XTRMNTR (2000), and Evil Heat (2002). Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie has said that "[Shields] brings something that nobody else in the world can bring. He plays guitar the way that nobody else in the world plays guitar," adding that Primal Scream considered Shields to be "part of the family, very much so." Shields has remained close to the band following his departure in 2006, remastering Primal Scream's third studio album Screamadelica (1991) in 2010 and contributing guitar to "2013", the lead single from More Light (2013). Gillespie has since commented on Shields' absence, noting that "there's always room for Kevin Shields—always."
  In 2003, Shields contributed four original compositions to the soundtrack for Sofia Coppola's 2003 film, Lost in Translation. Shields became involved with the score after being contacted by the film's music co-ordinator Brian Reitzell while in Tokyo, Japan. During summer 2002, Reitzell and Shields began impromptu jam sessions in London where the duo "adopted a late-night recording schedule", resulting in the single "City Girl". Released in August 2003 on V2 Records, the Lost in Translation soundtrack included three other ambient pieces which Shields had composed for the film: "Goodbye", "Ikebana" and "Are You Awake?". His contributions to the soundtrack earned Shields nominations for a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award for Best Film Music, an Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA) award for Best Music in a Film, and an Online Film Critics Society award for Best Original Score.
  In July 2008, Shields collaborated with the American musician Patti Smith to release the live album The Coral Sea on the PASK label (which the duo had also founded together). The double album features two performances at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, recorded on 22 June 2005 and 12 September 2006, wherein Smith reads the book of the name same (which she wrote in tribute to her friend, the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe) over Shields' instrumental accompaniment.
caption: Shields (left) performing as a guest with The Charlatans in London, England in January 2011
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